Various protective devices have been developed for use in protecting the wearers during sports activities. For example, baseball catchers have long been provided with well padded vests. However, such devices are generally cumbersome, unwieldy, heavy or interfere with performance and thus have not achieved widespread use, particularly amongst sports involving substantial body movements such as equestrian sports.
In order to satisfy equestrian user's needs, various manufacturers have developed and offer for sale body protective vests such as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vest is formed with a front panel 10 joined at shoulders 12 and 14 and side panels 16 and 18 to a back panel 20. Front panel 10 comprises a two piece panel joined by a central fastening means such as hook and loop fasteners or a soft nylon zipper 22 running vertically from top to bottom. Adjustable straps 24 bridge the side panels 16 and 18. Referring also to FIG. 3, front panel 10 and back panel 20 typically comprise an outer shell 30 and an inner shell 32. Impact absorbing resilient foam inserts 34 are held in place between shells 30 and 32 by stitching 36 which runs vertically along the front and back panels. While prior art protective garments such as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 have been shown to mitigate soft tissue injury, the vests have a tendency to ride up particularly when the user bends forward, for example, when jumping on horseback. While shortening the length of the front panel 10 reduces the problem of ride-up, shortening the panel also reduces the area of protection and is thus not desirable.